A comeback?

So if a tree falls down in the forest, but nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound? And if an old card blogger writes a post, and nobody is around to read it … I think you get my drift. I didn’t think this day would come, but here I am, almost a year after I stopped blogging regularly and nine months after my last post, blogging again.

But I have a feeling that at least some people will be reading this. Amazingly, after all this time without any new posts, there has still been a steady stream of traffic to this blog, and the blog recently received its 100,000th visitor. I was blown away by that. It’s interesting to see that many card blogs still have a link to Fielder’s Choice, and it’s great to see an occasional mention of my blog in other people’s posts, and sometimes a link to one of my old posts. I should also say that I was deeply moved by all of the kind words that so many people left in the comments on my last post.

During my time away from blogging, I’ve still been reading several card blogs, and leaving comments on some. I have to admit that I lost some interest in reading blogs when Wax Heaven went on hiatus, but I am happy to see that Mario is back now on a limited basis. I’ve also enjoyed keeping in touch with some of the friends that I met through the blog on facebook. I got to meet Rob from Voice of the Collector at the National last year, increasing the number of card bloggers that I’ve met in person to five. I even wrote a guest post at Wax Heaven about my experience at the National, which you can read here if you missed it.

My collecting habits have definitely changed. It is very rare that I buy any boxes or packs of new cards, although I still do that occasionally. Over the last year, I’ve been focused almost exclusively on adding new Evan Longoria cards to my collection. In fact, the page about my Evan Longoria collection is the only thing that I’ve kept updated on the blog since I stopped writing. As you can see, I’m now up to 357 different cards including 61 autographs, and I am very proud of that! I believe it’s likely that I have one of the top Longoria collections in the world. It’s been a very fun endeavor as he continues to grow into super-stardom.

On a personal level, I’ve had a very good year. I attended many Durham Bulls games in 2009, seeing future Rays stars like David Price, Wade Davis, Jeremy Hellickson, Reid Brignac, Matt Joyce, and Desmond Jennings in action. My wife and I took a trip to Toronto last summer, and we got to see the Rays play the Jays on July 25. Toronto is one of my favorite cities, but the game started horribly with the Jays breaking out a 8-0 lead. It was depressing, but I was about to witness the greatest comeback in Tampa Bay franchise history. Yes, my Rays fought back and won the game 10-9 in 12 innings! It was the best Rays game of the year, and I was lucky enough to be in attendance. And, oh yeah, before the game, Evan Longoria signed my ticket:

The Rays had a good season overall, finishing 84-78, for their second best record ever. But they finished in third place, behind the two big money behemoths in the A.L. East. It paled in comparison to the 2008 season, but I am very hopeful that the Rays will overcome the obstacles in their way, and surprise the world with another trip to the postseason in 2010! I can’t wait for spring training to begin next week…

In 2009, I made a big change in my lifestyle to benefit my health and my planet’s health by cutting meat out of my diet. It was a gradual change, and I’m still not yet at the point where I can call myself a vegetarian, because I’m still eating fish about once or twice per month, but I’m getting there, and I feel healthier than I’ve ever been. I lost more than 20 pounds too. It was also a successful year in my career, and I feel very fortunate to be employed by what I consider to be one of the best companies in the world to work for. I survived the Great Recession totally unscathed, and I’m very optimistic about the economic recovery that’s been going on in the U.S. and the world. But most importantly, it was a very good year in my family life. My wife is finishing up her work towards her Masters degree, and we received huge news at the end of 2009…

We’re going to be parents for the first time, with a due date of June 8, 2010!

A few weeks ago, we found out that we’re having a girl, and here’s her first picture:

I am absolutely thrilled to become a dad! My wife and I have begun preparing for our daughter’s arrival. We’re setting up a baby room, and to help clear space, I’ve been trying to organize my card collection as much as possible, and getting rid of cards that I don’t want. I’ll be listing many cards on eBay in March, when I figure that more people will be thinking about baseball and baseball cards. And there’s a 10-year old collector out there who will be getting a lot of my extra cards soon.

My wife is going to take at least a year off from work after our daughter is born, so we won’t have as much expendable income as we’ve had in the past. One result of that will be that I’ll need to cut back on how much I spend on cards. After she’s born, I’m thinking that it’ll be a while before I purchase any new Longoria autographs or low serial-numbered cards, but I can still have some fun by setting a budget and adding some low-cost new cards to my collection.

I definitely don’t anticipate that my daughter will be interested in sports cards. I know it’s not completely impossible, as there are some women who actively collect, but I’ll be happy if she takes even a minor interest in baseball, let alone cards. I know that my wife will be getting her involved in figure skating, swimming, and gymnastics. If and when I eventually have a son, my hope is that he will one day take an interest in his father’s hobbies.

So why am I writing this post? Well, one reason is to bring my blog readers (if you’re still out there) up to date on what I’ve been up to and to share the great news about my upcoming baby. But another reason is that I’ve decided to start blogging again on a limited basis.

I need to be very careful to make sure that I stick to the plan to limit my blogging, especially because my responsibilities at home are starting to increase dramatically. But I still love baseball, and I have fun collecting baseball cards, and I’d like to start sharing that with others again through this blog. I’ll probably be showing off some of my Longoria cards, sharing some thoughts on the upcoming season, and giving my opinions about new 2010 products and the state of the hobby. But it will only be once in a while, when I have the time to write, and it’s likely that the posts will be much shorter than what I’ve written in the past. And I won’t be making card trades or doing video box breaks because those were some of the things that consumed way too much of my time.

So I’ll probably have another post or two up sometime in the next week, and I hope that I can reconnect with some of my former readers and fellow bloggers, and keep you up to date on what’s going on in my life and in my collection. Fielder’s Choice definitely won’t be the same as it was in the past, but it’ll still be something, and I hope that it’ll be a fun experience for me and my readers.

Congrats on the 1/1, we are less than 2 months away from ours. Im still not sure if Im ready to be a dad. However, at least I have a boy to pass my collection to in 20 years when it is worth 10 cents. Glad to have you back.

I just happened to stumble onto your post. There are so many blogs now that a person has to scroll way down a blogroll to even see a whole days worth. I’m glad I’m going to start seeing your there again.

It has images of 1987 Topps cards for every team. I think it’ll be 2036 before we see Topps Heritage with the 1987 design, BUT the 1962 Topps design is similar, and we’ll see that Topps Heritage set next year!

Hello there Dave! Wow im like 4 months late, Havent checked back here in a while, well congrats on the baby girl, hope its alot of fun for you! And Ill check back, glad to see you writing again!
-Anthony